The embodiments herein relate generally to a new surface raised above an existing surface.
Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, stage floors were challenging to assemble, align and adjust because of a mistaken theory of nodal assembly that plagues the prior art. Nodal assembly is the theory that a stage floor consists of stringers arranged in rows, columns and, in some cases, diagonals that intersect at nodes where either all the stringers terminate or all the stringers in a single direction terminate. The prior art includes: U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,582 issued to Vugrek; U.S. Pat. No. 8,162,569 issued to Kennedy; U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,296 issued to Ishibashi; U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,923 issued to Irish; European Patent Application 0529073 filed by Haka; U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0089229 filed by Ackerman; U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,557 filed by Tharp; U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,715 issued to Roen; U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,186 issued to Jines; U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,670 issued to Naka; U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,057 issued to Norsworthy; U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,696 issued to Hubbard; U.S. Pat. No. 8,181,399 issued to Knight; U.S. Pat. No. 8,387,317 issued to Kugler; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,879 issued to Barr.
Elevated building surfaces such as elevated floors, decks, terraces and walkways are desirable in many environments. Prior art decks, such as Irish, essentially rely on having elongated members terminate at each node. This construction leads to a substantial time sink in assembly, and a low strength to weight ratio. The present invention solves this problem.
Vugrek, Norsworthy an Ishibashi teach a series of pedestals that can be interconnected by a series of stringers. Haka adds the support members but has them terminate at each node, much like Irish. Tharp likewise adds a top plate to assist in uniform floor height but does not have a theory as how this could help loading. Naka, Jines and Kugler add an elaborate keying system to that but each member continues to terminate at each node. Knight proffers to add stability by wrapping the stringers partially around the pedestals. Barr proffers to add stability by adding an expansion joint at each pedestal. In each of these, the pedestals are arranged in rows with each stringer transiting from one pedestal to another but no stringer connects three pedestals, indeed three adjacent pedestals are not shown at all.
Both Ackerman and Kennedy teach a bulkhead for a safe room that utilizes a series of nodes that are bolted to a number of elongated members as a cross bar that runs indefinitely along a wall. If such a construction would be applied to a floor there would be no modular theory of assembly resulting in a substantial time to assemble, further, there would be substantial deflection in the deck when compared to embodiments of the present invention.
Roen tries to combine the teaching of the continuous rails in Ackerman and Kennedy with the floor teaching of Vugrek, Norsworthy an Ishibashi, and concludes that the best way to do this does so by having a plurality of parallel members resting on top of a plurality of perpendicular members. While this enables a key system as in Naka, Jines and Kugler for sliding floor panels, those panels are still only supported by the keys in the upper member and would deflect under moderate loading.
Hubbard teaches a floor system that involves a series of continuous parallel members that cross many nodes separated by a series of perpendicular members that terminate at each node. Rather than utilizing an anchor for structural support, Hubbard teaches a central hub that is connected to a pneumatic shock absorber and then a series of struts and pads are adjacent to pedestals. It is specious as to whether this works and Hubbard offers no testing results. More likely, the arrangement of the perpendicular members renders the device likely to fail at those nodes away from the pedestals.